A word to all left-leaning people/neverTrump voters

[grandvizier1006]

i thought I'd just leave this here and say a few things.

It's going to be ok.

I know a lot of you are distraught about this election. It seems like we've elected a fascist/bigoted/vulgar/dictatorial/obnoxious man for president. You feel like you don't understand your own fellow Americans or that the world is crumbling around you. You feel wronged.

Again, it's going to be ok.

When Obama first got elected, I was upset. I was thirteen then, a little too young to get how elections worked and why anybody would vote for a liberal. I cried about it for a while but had to keep going. I thought so many people had become lax and complacent and had been duped into buying into a leftist agenda.

I was worried that Obama would destroy Christianity. I was worried he would turn me gay. I was worried he would persecute Christians out of existence. I was afraid of being the last Christian on earth, with no one to turn to for help. I thought my friends were so stupid for not seeing what was so obvious, that Obama was a Muslim who sought to recreate America into a multicultural utopia that I would be kicked out of.

Don't worry about tommorow. Focus on the good things that never go away with each election. And remember that we need everyone, especially people that will play devil's advocate and foster healthy political debate. You are always welcome in these great United States.

God bless.

 

[Hank77]

You weren't alone many people felt that way.
I wasn't convinced of that anymore than I am convinced that Trump will or could destroy this country.
God is in control.

 

[GoldenBoy89]

I'm not worried about Trump. No single person is powerful enough to bring America down to its knees.

But a sizeable portion of 300 million people? Now that's another story.

 

[Cute Tink]

I'm not going to bother debating the specifics, but the things I'm afraid of from a Trump presidency (especially with a Republican controlled Congress), unlike your list of fears, are actually stated goals of the Republican party and campaign promises I've seen from Trump - which are also entirely possible, realistic and even easy if he wants to appease his base and fulfill his promises.

 

[JackRT]

i thought I'd just leave this here and say a few things.

It's going to be ok.

I know a lot of you are distraught about this election. It seems like we've elected a fascist/bigoted/vulgar/dictatorial/obnoxious man for president. You feel like you don't understand your own fellow Americans or that the world is crumbling around you. You feel wronged.

Again, it's going to be ok.

When Obama first got elected, I was upset. I was thirteen then, a little too young to get how elections worked and why anybody would vote for a liberal. I cried about it for a while but had to keep going. I thought so many people had become lax and complacent and had been duped into buying into a leftist agenda.

I was worried that Obama would destroy Christianity. I was worried he would turn me gay. I was worried he would persecute Christians out of existence. I was afraid of being the last Christian on earth, with no one to turn to for help. I thought my friends were so stupid for not seeing what was so obvious, that Obama was a Muslim who sought to recreate America into a multicultural utopia that I would be kicked out of.

You have matured a great deal in the last eight years.

 

[Jack of Spades]

It's going to be ok.

It will probably be OK for Americans, you guys get to try again in four years. But if Trump does as he says in foreign policy, and gives Putin free hands in Eastern Europe, it's not gonna be okay for us living in that region. There will be a war either in Baltic states, (the rest of) Ukraine or Finland.

Yeah, it sounds like I'm being doom and gloom. But ask yourself would it have sounded any different coming from someone living in Checnya, Georgia or Ukraine, before Putin invaded those countries.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate your tone. You clearly mean well.

 

[JackRT]

It will probably be OK for Americans, you guys get to try again in four years. But if Trump does as he says in foreign policy, and gives Putin free hands in Eastern Europe, it's not gonna be okay for us living in that region. There will be a war either in Baltic states, (the rest of) Ukraine or Finland.

Yeah, it sounds like I'm being doom and gloom. But ask yourself would it have sounded any different coming from someone living in Checnya, Georgia or Ukraine, before Putin invaded those countries.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate your tone. You clearly mean well.

As a Canadian living next to the USA, I look south and feel nervous and I'm not speaking of Trump. I can just imagine what it must be like living next to Russia with Tsar Putin in charge.

 

[Jack of Spades]

I'm not going to bother debating the specifics, but the things I'm afraid of from a Trump presidency (especially with a Republican controlled Congress), unlike your list of fears, are actually stated goals of the Republican party and campaign promises I've seen from Trump - which are also entirely possible, realistic and even easy if he wants to appease his base and fulfill his promises.

I would love to welcome and offer my help for American liberals seeking refugee in Scandinavia, but unfortunately, I can't anymore recommend coming here because this place might soon be part of Putinlandia. I guess going to Australia would be a better investment...

As a Canadian living next to the USA, I look south and feel nervous and I'm not speaking of Trump. I can just imagine what it must be like living next to Russia with Tsar Putin in charge.

It's not bad when the West decides to keep a united front, like it did after the Ukraine crisis. But any European country is not strong enough to stand up against Russia alone. Western unity, or lack of unity, is what's gonna decide the fate of Eastern Europe.

 

[wing2000]

It seems like we've elected a fascist/bigoted/vulgar/dictatorial/obnoxious man for president. You feel like you don't understand your own fellow Americans or that the world is crumbling around you. You feel wronged.

Candidate Trump was exactly that. I am waiting to see if President Trump does a 180.....

 

[Cute Tink]

I would love to welcome and offer my help for American liberals seeking refugee in Scandinavia, but unfortunately, I can't anymore recommend coming here because this place might soon be part of Putinlandia. I guess going to Australia would be a better investment...

I have origins in Scandinavia, but there's no way I'm going to Australia. Too many things capable of killing with a look.

Canadia maybe, if I decided to be truly dramatic about this. I have family there. No intentions of moving though.

 

[SnowyMacie]

i thought I'd just leave this here and say a few things.

It's going to be ok.

I know a lot of you are distraught about this election. It seems like we've elected a fascist/bigoted/vulgar/dictatorial/obnoxious man for president. You feel like you don't understand your own fellow Americans or that the world is crumbling around you. You feel wronged.

Again, it's going to be ok.

When Obama first got elected, I was upset. I was thirteen then, a little too young to get how elections worked and why anybody would vote for a liberal. I cried about it for a while but had to keep going. I thought so many people had become lax and complacent and had been duped into buying into a leftist agenda.

I was worried that Obama would destroy Christianity. I was worried he would turn me gay. I was worried he would persecute Christians out of existence. I was afraid of being the last Christian on earth, with no one to turn to for help. I thought my friends were so stupid for not seeing what was so obvious, that Obama was a Muslim who sought to recreate America into a multicultural utopia that I would be kicked out of.

Thank you for words.

Personally, I am not distraught, I am in utter disbelief and shock. I feel like when I found out, I suddenly found myself in a foreign land. The entire day has just seemed surreal because of it, like it just can't be real. I remember being very conservative when Obama was elected and unsure if we would ever even have another election again, and was terrified, but I could believe it to be real, in fact, I saw it coming. This just something that my brain is still trying to process since I found out at 7 AM this morning (it's about 4:20 PM as I write this).

Like I said before the election, in my plea post, I'm not convinced that Trump's beliefs and stances are what he claims they are, I think partially he figured out how to get publicity and votes. That and running against arguable the most unpopular and corrupt politician since Nixon is why he won this election. You are right, I don't understand my fellow Americans. I understand being concerned over illegal immigration and terrorism, those are serious issues facing our country. I get wanting to be against the establishment and wanting a political outsider (as a Bernie supporter in the primaries, that was one of the reasons I was for Bernie). I also understand voting against Hillary Clinton. To be honest, I'm not even sure what I don't understand because the the mentality of actually being in support of Donald Trump is so foreign to me.

Even that doesn't really make sense to me because if you know me on here, you've heard me say that I used to be very conservative. I used to want things like a border wall and to ban all Muslims from entering the country. When I look back, I don't think I could have supported Trump. It could just be wishful thinking, but I think that his actions like making fun of the disabled person, his comments about his daughter, the Miss Universe, another similar comment, his string of failed businesses coming out, or maybe some combination and thought "this man (if he's really like this) is not fit to be President".

My best theory so far is that for most of my adult life, I just never felt "American" for some reason. Then I studied abroad Europe in college, in addition to learning more about the world and other cultures and political systems just amplified that. I found myself in a place where I just agreed with the Western and Northern European ways of looking at political science and culture. In fact, since coming back from Europe, I never quite felt at-home again. While I wasn't really looking for it, it just kind of happened that I found myself saying "a Trump presidency is the conclusive evidence I don't belong in this country." There is part of me that feels this way, but part of me does not. I'm not sure which is right. Regardless, I don't respect or like Trump, but I will give him a chance.

 

[MoonlessNight]

One area where I do have a large amount of empathy for those that opposed Trump is how shocking this victory must be. Poll after poll, analyst after analyst, assured everyone that a Trump victory was nearly impossible. No one that I am aware of gave Trump more than a 40% chance of winning the election yesterday morning. Most pundits gave him far worse chances, and most of them lowered the chances of his victories from their previous (and already dismal) stances. At the same time pundits regularly discussed how the only question was about how large of victory Hillary would take, with an absolute electoral domination a very real possibility.

Then yesterday happened, and the "toss-up" states reliably went to Trump, with Hillary losing states which were supposed to be reliably in her corner. Before long, she was in a position where she would have to take nearly everything uncalled, and neither the counts nor what had happened previously that night made that look likely. The effect was most easily seen if you paid attention to the New York Times predictions, where over a course of just a few hours they went from giving Hillary Clinton an 85% chance to win the presidency to saying that Donald Trump had more than a 95% chance to win.

It's like your weatherman told you that there would be no more than a 10% chance of a light rain, and then the next morning its a hurricane. There's no way that you would have made preparations, either practically or emotionally, for that.

Trump supporters had a year to consider what they would do if their candidate lost, because they were always informed that it was a real possibility. Hillary supporters had to fit all of that reaction into less than 24 hours. That can't be easy.

 

[Goonie]

One area where I do have a large amount of empathy for those that opposed Trump is how shocking this victory must be. Poll after poll, analyst after analyst, assured everyone that a Trump victory was nearly impossible. No one that I am aware of gave Trump more than a 40% chance of winning the election yesterday morning. Most pundits gave him far worse chances, and most of them lowered the chances of his victories from their previous (and already dismal) stances. At the same time pundits regularly discussed how the only question was about how large of victory Hillary would take, with an absolute electoral domination a very real possibility.

Then yesterday happened, and the "toss-up" states reliably went to Trump, with Hillary losing states which were supposed to be reliably in her corner. Before long, she was in a position where she would have to take nearly everything uncalled, and neither the counts nor what had happened previously that night made that look likely. The effect was most easily seen if you paid attention to the New York Times predictions, where over a course of just a few hours they went from giving Hillary Clinton an 85% chance to win the presidency to saying that Donald Trump had more than a 95% chance to win.

It's like your weatherman told you that there would be no more than a 10% chance of a light rain, and then the next morning its a hurricane. There's no way that you would have made preparations, either practically or emotionally, for that.

Trump supporters had a year to consider what they would do if their candidate lost, because they were always informed that it was a real possibility. Hillary supporters had to fit all of that reaction into less than 24 hours. That can't be easy.

Which is why it was the morning when Hillary gave her concession speech. I suspect she had not prepared it before hand

After Brexit I am astonished the Democrats did not pay more attention to the rust belt. Complacency bit them on the posterior in an election that was theirs to lose.

 

[SnowyMacie]

Over 48 hours and I'm still in disbelief.

 

[mark46]

It could have been Cruz (much, much worse)

or Huckabee, or Carson
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Seriously, Wall Street had the appropriate reaction: panic and acceptance.
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Trump has made almost all the right statements so far; well, all except floating the name of Mr breighbart as Chief Of Staff. All signs point to him as being Trump's favorite, although almost everyone is trying to convince Trump to choose Priebus or Trump's son-in-law.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Trump has made almost all the right statements so far;

To be fair, a word was recently added to the CF “banned words” list because of statements Trump made…

 

[cow451]

It could have been Cruz (much, much worse)

or Huckabee, or Carson

So very true.

 

[Vylo]

Yeah, its gonna be Ok for me. I'm white, male, straight, non-muslim, college educated, in the top 10% of income with a trade license and employer health insurance. Not all of my friends and family are though. I have concerns for them.

 

[NotreDame]

Yeah, its gonna be Ok for me. I'm white, male, straight, non-muslim, college educated, in the top 10% of income with a trade license and employer health insurance. Not all of my friends and family are though. I have concerns for them.

Really? Looking at this objectively, just the facts, tell me what you realistically think Trump could do to your friends or people similar to your friends?

I ask because I'm coming to the realization some who voted for Hillary believe there is a real, palpable, existential likelihood of Trump deporting 12 million illegals, unilaterally revoking non-citizen Muslims lawful status in the U.S. en masse and sending them back to their place of origin, and so forth. I look at the institutional impediments to these possibilities, the legal improbabilities of such action, and wonder how they could believe this action as plausible.

This paranoia on the left and those opposed to Trump reminds of the hysteria on the right and those opposed to Obama.

 

[Cearbhall]

I was worried that Obama would destroy Christianity. I was worried he would turn me gay. I was worried he would persecute Christians out of existence. I was afraid of being the last Christian on earth, with no one to turn to for help. I thought my friends were so stupid for not seeing what was so obvious, that Obama was a Muslim who sought to recreate America into a multicultural utopia that I would be kicked out of.

I appreciate the message, but those are completely irrational concerns. I don't blame a 13-year-old for feeling that way, but I don't see the comparison. This screams false equivalency. Obama is not and never was Muslim. Obama is Christian like you. And no one can turn you gay or wants to do so.

The difference is that I'm only fearful because of what Trump has actually said he believes and wants to do, and also because of what his favorite politicians have already done in their respective government positions. Not because of what some liberal version of Limbaugh or Breitbart has told me.